Lindsay Katt

Picking Out Boxes

Lindsay Katt has the sound of someone who’s going to make it in the music business, not only because she’s lovely and talented, but because she’s having fun as well. This self-taught, Montana-born singer-songwriter recently relocated to New York and created Picking Out Boxes, a knockout debut album. With her lush and powerful voice, Katt delivers 12 tunes that showcase disarmingly fresh lyrics and well-composed orchestral backgrounds that either soar or bounce, depending whether she’s questioning love in “Wretched Unbelievers” or offering helpful suggestions in “Pretty in a Paper Bag.”

Being a female pianist-singer, she tempts comparison: a bit like Regina Spektor but with a more powerful voice, or like Fiona Apple, if Apple ever sounded happy. And Katt has good reason to sound happy; her songs are just poppy enough that they’ll make it on the radio, and just creative enough that they’ll stand out when they do. This is an exemplary first album—one that certainly leaves room for growth, but also promises that Katt’s name will be one to to listen for in the future. (Melissa Mylchreest)